Comms

1) Organised set of ideas which we use to interpret the world 

• Hedonism: The only thing that matters is to have fun

2) Ideology as 'false consciousness' - Karl Marx 

• False ideas of the ruling class, used to fool the working class and get their obedience to the status

 LOUIS ALTHUSSER: 'Ideology is not just ideas but a set of social practices embedded in everyday life' (ISA) Ideological apparatus of the state  

1) Capitalist

• Private owenrship of firms being dermine by profits is the best way to run society 

2) Free market capitalism 

• Where everybody maximises their own benefit through hard work which is the only way to gurantee freedom and democracy 
• Brightest people get to the top 
• Get the popular culture they want (if it makes profit) 

3) Consumerism 

• Mass consumption of products - which makes people happier 

AYN RAND: 'People only have one moral duty and that is to do the best possible for themselves in terms of money and carrer. People who are excessively concerned about the poor, the weak and less fortunate are mindless idiots'

1) Class 

• Society was divided up into classes, exploiter class (capitalists) and the exploited class (working class) 
• Capitalist owns the mean of production (companies/banks), they are rich because usually born into a rich class 
• The workers live by selling their labour power (going work) 

2) Class struggle

• Workers struggle to gain a social revelution to free a free classless society (communism)

3) Ideology

• False consicousness - rich people control the state
• Capitalists ideas are hegemonic (dominant) 
  

KARL MARX 'Our ideas aredetermined by the time, place and culture which we live in'

1) Modernism 

• Identity in the contemporary world is different from the past, more freedom to do what we want and to who we want to be. 'A work of progress' 

2) Postmodernism 

• Old world order has broken down, religion is dead and so are all political ideologies, nothing to believe in anymore 
• World of work is changing from mass production towards flexible specialisation - where workers are multi skilled and goods are produced according to the individual tastes

CRITICS: The difference between postmodernism and modernism is exaggerated, the political ideologies & relgion do matte, science and truth are still important.

1) Feminism 

• Aims to establish more rights and legal protection for women 
• Feminsim gained fame in 1970's
• Feminists activities have compaigned for women's legal rights (voting, contracts, property) 
• Protection of women and girls from domestic violence and sexual harassment 
• Workplace rights such as maternity leave and equal pay 
• Discrimination against women 

1) Mass culture debate 

• Started from 1950's where consumer society started, goods and services stopped being just necessities but central texts in leisure (working class-more money) and teenagers and youth culture were discovered 
• Critics said the new mass culture was rubbish and a wat of controlling the working class 
• According to the Frankfurt school mass culture is repititve, borning and uncritical. Hollywood, Tv and pop music stultify the brain. 
• Mass culture is mindless dumbing down 
• Mass culture industry sold ordinary people unrealistic dreams and made it impossible to see reality.
• The mass of ordinary people are brainwashed 

JURGEN HABERMAS: 'The mass culture under capitalism has taken control of popular consciousness'

1) Discourse narrative myth 

• Discourse focuses on how people interpret reality through discussion and debate & ideological construction 

2) Narrative 

• Story, as one story might be part of a bigger ideology i.e. a concept in ones religion 

3) Myth

• Big story, which stands between individuals stories (all nationalisms are myths) 

1) Post-colonialism 

• A series of ideas and movements aiming to overcome the effects of colonialism 
• Deals with cultural identity in colonized countries and developing a national identity
• Postcolonial theory criticises - the western way of thinking, therefore creating space for the outsiders to speak